=15.= _David the seventh_] Jesse had eight sons (1 Samuel xvii. 12; compare xvi. 10, 11). Here one seems deliberately passed over, perhaps because he had no children. (The Elihu “one of David’s brethren” of 1 Chronicles xxvii. 18 is probably to be identified with Eliab and not to be regarded as an eighth brother.) ¹⁶and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the sons of Zeruiah; Abishai¹, and Joab, and Asahel, three. ¹ Hebrew _Abshai_. =16.= _sons of Zeruiah_] Joab and his brothers are always thus named after their mother; perhaps their father died while they were young, or we may have a relic here of the ancient method of tracing kinship through the mother. ¹⁷And Abigail bare Amasa: and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite. =17.= _the Ishmaelite_] 2 Samuel xvii. 25, “the Israelite,” an error yielding no satisfactory sense. =18‒24= (compare verses 42‒55.) DESCENDANTS OF CALEB. ¹⁸And Caleb the son of Hezron begat _children_ of Azubah _his_ wife, and of Jerioth: and these were her sons; Jesher, and Shobab, and Ardon. ¹⁹And Azubah died, and Caleb took unto him Ephrath, which bare him Hur. =18.= _Caleb_] a clan dwelling in southern Judea, and probably distinct from Judah in the time of David (1 Samuel xxv. 3, xxx. 14). Other references to them or rather their reputed founder Caleb ben Jephunneh the Kenizzite (Numbers xxxii. 12; Joshua xiv. 6, 14; 1 Chronicles i. 36, where see note on _Kenaz_) point to an original connection with the Edomites. Their importance in these lists is explained by the fact that they were incorporated in Judah, and, after the exile, occupied townships close to Jerusalem (verses 50‒55) “forming possibly the bulk of the tribe in post-exilic Judah, since the Chronicler knows so few other families” (Curtis, _Chronicles_ p. 89). See also W. R. Smith, _Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, p. 279 _ad fin._ _begat_ children _of Azubah_ his _wife, and of Jerioth_] the Hebrew seems to be corrupt. Read perhaps =begat children of Azubah, his wife, daughter of Jerioth=; or =took Azubah the wife of Jerioth=. The name _Azubah_ = _forsaken_ is significant: see the note on verse 42, _Caleb_, _ad fin._ ²⁰And Hur begat Uri, and Uri begat Bezalel. =20.= _Bezalel_] the Chronicler is naturally pleased to give prominence in his list to Bezalel, who in Exodus xxx. (P) is mentioned as the artificer of the Tabernacle. ²¹And afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead; whom he took _to wife_ when he was threescore years old; and she bare him Segub. =21.= The table of Caleb is broken off at this point to introduce verses 21‒23 a statement of further descendants of Hezron (verse 9) by another wife, the daughter of Machir. The interruption is not unnatural, for it is convenient to refer to Hezron’s “son of old age” immediately before the notice of his death (verse 24).